NSW - SOUTH COAST OFFSHORE 24/4/10

The south coast is starting to fish very well offshore, with all signs pointing to a great snapper season over the cooler months. Locals Craig and Greg both launched at an unholy hour - I launched at 7.40am and met them on the water, after driving from Canberra with a Braidwood bakery detour.

Conditions were wonderful for chasing snapper in close, with a light breeze and overcast skies. The day had started slowly for Greg and Craig with only one just legal snapper for Greg. I was keen to compare the GULP 5" jerk shads with the regular Powerbait 5" jerk shads, so had one of each out. Just as we came together for a chat, the rod with the nuclear chicken GULP went off and a nice 40cm snapper came aboard.

I had been chatting to Greg for quite a while when I saw something move on the back of his kayak, and realised that he had taken his black lab out for the trip. She was very well behaved! I got another the same snapper the same size as the first on the Powerbait jerk shad, and then a beautiful morwong on the GULP. The day rolled along and a few more nice fish hit the decks.

Craig caught a real trophy sized red rock cod of which he should be very proud Greg caught the snapper of the day, a very fat 2kg fish, and had just finished telling me about how morwong are his favourite fish to eat, and that he hadn't caught one in the past 6 years, when I caught another one.

This seemed to raise Greg's ire a touch, so I felt pretty bad when I caught another mowie next cast. And just as Greg left for the beach my last rod went off and I received a royal dusting, probably a good snapper which buried me in the kelp.

SQUIDGY SOUTHERN BREAM SERIES - ROUND 4

Round 4 of the Squidgy southern bream series was held on Sunday 18/4 at St.Georges basin, NSW south coast. A field of 15 kayaks and 72 boats filled most of Palm beach on the Basin's foreshore ready for the 7 am start in ideal conditions.

Once the boaters had cleared out, we set off in the yaks hoping to fill our livewells early. I chose to start off fishing deep water with blades while most opted to fish the shallow weedbeds and sand flats that surround the basin. On my 2nd cast i hooked up to what i thought was a decent bream, but unfortunately it was a just legal Snapper. For the next 30 minutes i had no felt even a touch until i finally connected to a bream which measured 27cm to the fork.

Its a great feeling during a comp to get the first fish into the livewell, i was happy to have done that but i needed 2 more to have a chance. I kept working the blades for at least another hour with no success so i moved in closer to fish a weedbed in approximately 2m of water with soft plastics and immediately hooked up to a solid fish which took a lot of line on the first run, at this point i was excited, thinking i had a solid bream on, i got the first glimpse of the fish and the colour was right, but as it neared the surface i was heart broken to see a trevally of about 45cm.

Usually i would have been glad to have that on my line but it was not the target species so it went back in the water as quick as possible so i could get back to the fishing. I drifted close enough to Squidder to ask how he was going, and i was suprised to hear he already had a full livewell and had upgraded 1 fish. I needed a change of plan so i pedalled to another spot i have had good results and continued with the blades, still without any luck, and time was running out quickly and before i knew it, it was time to head back to weigh in with my single average sized bream.

Once i had spoken to a few people back on the beach i soon realised not many had struggled like i did, and some good bags were weighed in by most. i was a bit dissapointed with my performance, but happy to have at least the 1 fish to weigh in to claim the extra points. To make up for my dissapointment i got to witness KFA's Derek 'Paffoh' Steele claim his first tournament victory with a good bag of 3 fish weighing 1.87kg and Jason 'Squidder' Price taking 3rd with a bag of 3 for 1.685kg.

Here is what Paf had to say about the event and his first ever tournament win:

"With the last remaining Hobie ABT round in Camden Haven being just a little too far away for a fly in weekend visit I took the opportunity to participate in my second SSBS event of the year. Most of the KFA ‘Canberra Massive’ members attended, along with members of AKFF and KFDU (And other associations). "

"Having fished the Basin a few times previously, and lacking time to recently pre fish, I found myself followed my worn ground.Using my kayaks ability to negotiate shallow weedy flats I struggled with surface lures, finding Bream active but short striking. My plan B was always to vibe deeper water using metal blades, using one of my go to Impact Bladez. "

"It’s a strange technique that involves firstly finding fish, initiating a follow along the bottom and producing hits on the lift. I pulled plenty of hooks early on large Bream, finding only a tell tale scale on the rear treble (Possible foul hooking).

"Wandering around the 10m mark searching for schools is frustrating stuff, especially with so much water to cover. My first Bream came after my first position shuffle, a 37/38cm fork length genuine belter that took both the rear treble and foul hooked its facial cheek on the front. It was quite heavy and was easily over a kilo; obviously I began trying to replicate the feat by staying confident and peppering the area looking for its brothers and sisters."

"Unfortunately I dropped similar (If not bigger) specimens over the next hour, only to then hit a school of the scourge of the Basin bream fishers, the royal Tarwhine. Once hooked they go like stink, out of a similar size Breams league anyway."

"With no interest in royal gossip I became frustrated, waiting for lengthy cloud cover before venturing back to the shallows. My second fish sipped a long cast Jazz Zappa off from a weedy patch point, making for a harrowing battle in 20cm of water. I have developed total confidence in these lures, eclipsing my other favourite surface lure, the PX45. "

"A 28cm Bream, skinny but lengthy met a mate in the live well and the quest for Bream number three took me back to the depths.Again I lost fish and struggled to land anything decent over the remaining hours; with minimal time remaining I spied my two last rifts and tied on a large Ecogear ZX. The third and last Bream for the day hit the blade on the drop second cast, luckily for me the ZX assist hooks pinned the lip mark perfectly. It looked small but was 26cm fork length, completing my six and a half hour tournament bag."

"I made it back to the weigh in with about 20 seconds to spare, giving myself uppercuts for cutting it so fine (Not to mention thrashing my legs in a frantic last minute thrashing). My guess of weight was around a 1.6kg bag, given the two sub 30 legals (And size to weight ration from previous competitions). To my surprise it went 1.87kg on the lie detector, courtesy of the kicker Bream (Who was much bigger than the photo suggests)."

"I was humbled by my first tournament win and acknowledged the very close effort of one and all. It’s taken many years and an enormous effort juggling small business with distance travelled but all good things come to those that wait... And in this case, more importantly, participate! "

Final results for round 4:

Position TEAM NAME KAYAKER WEIGHT BIG BREAM POINTS
1 Hobie Fishing Derek Steele 1.87 50
2 Stewart Dunn 1.720 49
3 Team AKFF Jason Price 1.685 48
4 Itchyant Ant Gorzacka 1.525 47
5 John T Barling 1.17 46
6 Jason Reid 1.110 45
7 Parko Alan Parkinson 0.775 44
8 Jason Peters 0.725 43
9 Edmedia.com.au Marcel Chaloupka 0.6 42
10 Andrew Death 0.485 41
11 AKFF 2 Craig Coughlan 0.475 40
Westie Clint Short 10
Jason Childs 10
NSW South Coast kayak fishos Paul Blenkin 10
Scott Barling 10

Year to date rankings:

R1 R2 R3 R4 TOTAL
1 Stewart Dunn (GF Qualify 3rd rnd) 49 47 49 49 194
2 Alan Parkinson 37 10 48 44 139
3 Craig Coughlan (KFA) 45 48 40 133
4 Andrew Death 38 44 41 123
5 Jason Reid 10 10 47 45 112
6 Carl Dubois (GF Qualify 1st rnd) 50 50 100
7 Daniel Holder (GF Qualify 2nd rnd) 48 50 98
8 Jason Price (KFA) 49 48 97
9 Brian Rutledge 42 10 42 94
10 Jason Peters 10 41 43 94
11 Dave Gleeson 43 46 89
12 Thomas Wood 44 44 88
13 Marcel Chaloupka 10 10 10 42 72
14 Wayne Robinson 47 10 10 67
15 Derek Steele (KFA) (GF Qualify 4th rnd) 10 50 60
16 John T Barling 10 46 56
17 Joe Pietrasikiewicz 10 45 55
18 Dave Hedge 40 10 50
19 Ant Gorzacka 47 47
20 Jason Meech 46 46
21 Brad Reid 41 41
22 Rowan Stanek 39 39
23 Steve Mastronimini 10 10 20
24 Scott Barling 10 10 20
25 Clint Short 10 10 20
26 Rod Waller 10 10
27 Ken Raley 10 10
28 Denis Huon 10 10
29 Mitchell Flavel 10 10
Bruce Flavel 10 10
Stephen Moy 10 10
Shawn Davies 10 10
Patrick Curran (KFA) 10 10
Tim Barden 10 10
Jason Childs 10 10
Paul Blenkin 10 10

NSW - POPPING MY 'SQUIDDING' CHERRY 17/4/10

Popped my virgin Squid cherry, with some guidance...

A lot of friends and family wonder why I refer to Jason has Squidder, I explain its self typified and he now needs no real introduction at dinner parties. Having known Jason for many years now I have watched him fish for Squid on the South Coast but never joined in. Perhaps it was the stains on his kayak, or the chance to fry bigger fish, either way I never saw the appeal. Recently I journeyed offshore with Jason, chasing some Snapper and using ‘Squidding’ as a backup plan (luckily we had one as the fishing was poor). He explained the technique, helped me with a float rig and lent me some jigs (A bright larger one and a couple of natural smaller patterns).

Didn’t take long before I had landed a couple, even being towed by one (It wasn’t that big). The rhythmic pulse of a low set drag and the challenge of avoiding the dreaded inking kept me entertained until light faded away. I asked a lot of questions and soaked up as much information as I could, this was the type of fishing Claire would enjoy. From what I can (Proponent to this location) gather they are either there or they are not, can be caught (Sometimes) throughout the day but are mostly found in active numbers in rising and fading light (Again, in this area).

I made a kick arse recipe that I will share with you all at a later date (Using bought Squid) but I can now guarantee it would be far better with fresh, caught Squid. Cleaning Squid was a little messy but it’s a fairly rapid that in my opinion is far easier than filleting fish. Given that we paid $8.00 for 4 medium size tubes from the fish market (Arrow Squid now doubt) a decent harvest of Southern Calamari is well worth the manpower, and the effort. I will prompt Jason to perhaps develop a better overview/ structure to/of targeting Squid from a kayak (For beginners), hopefully available here online in the near future.

2009/10 HOBIE BREAM KAYAK GRAND FINAL

ABT Hobie 2009/10 Kayak Fishing Series (Kayak Tournament dates):

• Round 1 - Sep 19-20 (Glenelg River, VIC)*
  
• Round 2 - Nov 7-8 (Narrabeen Lakes, NSW)
  
• Round 3 - Nov 14-15 (Gold Coast, QLD)
  
• Round 4 - Dec 12-13 (Redcliffe, QLD)
  
• Round 5 - Jan 9-10 (Noosa, QLD State Titles)
  
• Round 6 - Jan-23 (St Georges Basin, NSW)
• Round 7 - Jan-26 (Bemm River, VIC)
  
• Round 8 - Feb 6-7 (West Lakes, SA)
• Round 9 - Feb 13-14 (Walpole, WA)
  
• Round 10 - Feb-28 (Scamander River, TAS)
  
• Round 11 - Mar 13-14 (Forster, NSW State Titles)*
• Round 12 - Mar 27-28 (Marlo, VIC State Titles)*
• Round 13 - Apr 17-18 (Camden Haven, NSW)
  
• Grand Final - May 15-16 (Forster, NSW)*
  
  * Prefish ban is in place for this event.
  

For more information, please visit:
http://www.hobiefishing.com.au/category/abt/abt-hobie-events-200910/

Well the rounds have gone and been run and won by some of the best in the business, now its down to end games. KFA was lucky enough to qualify for the Grand Final with both Jason and Craig excelling at the St.Georges Basin round. I received one of the wildcards for the event and so did Paddy so was blown away all four of us will be attending. Forster is a wonderfull place to fish for Bream but for the first timers in the area it can be a little daunting. While prefishing bans are in place there is an official prefish on the Friday before the event, giving the tournament hopefull a chance to purge unprofitable spots and develop a game plan.

We look forward to reporting on the event and of course competing, it will be a class field and given we are all good mates it will be a weekend extravaganza like no other. Fishing Monthly, ABT and Hobie have a downloadable .PDF file with all details on the event. Its worth a look, even if your not competing as it highlights the effort the entrants, sponsors and affiliated buisness management it takes to make a Grand Final possible. To be honest I secretly hoped the event would be a little closer to home, but given the class of Bream Forster seems to turn on, plus the valid structure available, it was a very wise choice (With a past ABT Hobie legacy).

For more information on the Grand Final, please visit:
http://bream.com.au/abt/2010/Hobiegf.pdf

PERSPECTIVE - RESPECTING THE SOUTH COAST

The South Coast of NSW is really firing early this year; big fish are coming in super close and within reach. Large Snapper, Kingfish and even Tuna and Marlin are on the cards from a kayak, also best to add species like Shark to that equation. Had a few reports and emails come to attention recently, mainly from around the Batemans Bay area and a little further south. Some have tangled with dozens of Bonito and XOS Salmon on recent sorties but most, if not all, have been targeting Snapper. There has been enough written on Snapper on hard bodies and Snapper on plastics from boats and very similar principles apply from a kayak. Its great and easy to learn but the best part of all (Techniques aside) is they are close enough to cast blindly to off the rocks or target them just past the breakers from a kayak.

This time of year most fishing grounds begin to get crowded with visitors from interstate looking to get in on the action, some of the best results over the years have been from repeat visits. In recent times KFA received a small amount of worrying complaints about kayak anglers (In general) disrespecting local wants and wishes when it came to visiting and fishing certain locations around the Batemans Bay region. Areas like Depot Beach were often populated by anglers fishing from kayaks last year (And even the year before), parking was at an impossible premium and upsetting local concern was noted (From numerous individuals).

It’s at this stage I hope to influence each and every one of you on why respect for an area is so important when following another’s footsteps. Believe me these places are very popular with the majority of the fishing fraternity and while they are just like you and me they are not in the minority. Kayak Fishermen stand out from the crowd and locals, given continual frustration, could relegate us to ‘The worst of the worst’ when it comes to being seen as perceptual offending over and over again.

Just keep in mind even locals are visitors to these areas, some places only fire for certain times of the year and any perceived angling pressure will be taken into account when the blame game starts. Using Depot as an example, If organising group trips make sure you park your car correctly and DONT park in the steep angled ramp, people use this as a reversing area for boat launching. Keep in mind that while you all want to park together its not the right thing to do, use your kayak trolley and walk the distance if need be but don’t permanently contribute to the road load. Pay your park fees (If visiting a National Park), nothing worse than contributing to the problem and your vehicle donning a yellow envelop for all to see.

Break up your visits, continual pressure on the one area will see you seen as a threat. Take a few weekends to visit other product spots (Chances are they hold fish too) before returning, no matter how successful. Keep GPS coordinates, maps, and sounder images off the net, describing and sharing in person is far better than archiving information for all to see. Nothing wrong with images and names of locations, even tackle used and so on but plots and breadcrumbs should never make it into internet reports IMO. Google is a very powerful tool but sometimes it’s just a little too useful, treat it like a spot X, share exact details with good friends only.

The rewards for keeping all this in mind will be all of us collectively learning from any perceived past mistakes and keeping any wanting pirates at bay, now and ever.

NSW - JERVIS BAY (OFFSHORE) 5/4/10

Late last week i was invited along on a trip to Jervis bay by a couple of mates Greg and Stewie to chase Marlin and Kingfish from the yaks, i have never fished for marlin before so i just had to go along for the experience at the very least. We arrived at the bay in the early hours of Monday morning and set up our yaks, Greg supplied pre-tied trace's for the Marlin so we geared up our combo's and set of to the bait grounds to collect some livie's.

Once we located a school of baitfish we sent out a burley trail and soon had hundred's of yellowtail yakka's underneath us, along with some rat kings that occaisionally took the small peice of pilchard intended for the baitfish and gave us trouble on our light hand lines. We got enough yakka's, but no Slimey Mackeral which were the preffered choice so we made do with what we had and set off. The Yakka's were bridled then sent out behind us while we trolled across the bay towards Point Perpendicular.

Once we arrived at the point, there were baitfish everywhere in big school's but there didnt seem to be anything else around them showing on the sounder. We trolled through the school's, then tried stopping the yaks and letting the livie swim down deep but the little yakka's received no attention so we continued our troll from Point Perpendicular down towards the landbased game spot, 'the tubes'.

We eventually made it down as close to the tubes as we could get with out disturbing the keen LBG anglers, still without any luck and hope was starting to fade. We all knew the Marlin were definately no guarantee but we were suprised we had not seen any Kingfish. We back tracked back up towards Point Perpendicular with the plan to leave the bay and round the point into the open ocean. As we neared the point Stewie's yakka got hit and for a moment i thought we may have found some Kings but disapointment followed shortly after as he pulled up a Salmon.

We worked that general area for at least 15 minutes hoping the Kingfish were around as well but it was not to be. Again we continued to troll, and as we rounded the point into open water, my livie got hit, but again, disapointment followed as a Salmon launched itself clear of the water. It was a fairly good size, but not what we were after and not what we had put so much effort into chasing. So once again, i bridled another yakka and continued to troll north along the cliff faces with the small amount of hope i had left of getting some decent fish.

After trolling north for a little while longer, we turned around and headed south to try around Bowen Island, and about halfway between the point and the island Stewie got hit again bit the fish didnt connect, and a few minutes after my livie got hit as well but without a hookup. Whatever it was hit good enough to kill the yakka but didnt eat it unfortunately, so another livie was sent out and we continued towards the island.

As we approached the island Greg commented 'ok, here we go, our last chance', and my spirit lifted as we got close enough to the island to see hundreds of baitfish close into the rocks, i thought that maybe some predatory fish may have been nearby and forced them in close, but again we passed through and then back again without a touch.We called it a day and slowly trolled our way back towards the ramp, i was disapointed the King's were quiet but thats fishing i guess.

Hopefully we get another shot at them soon, but with better results next time.

NSW - LAKE JINDABYNE (EASTER FRIDAY) 2/4/10

It had been far too long since I visited Jindabyne; pretty sure the other KFA boys were in the same boat (Erm, kayak?). Patwah suggested a run down on Easter Friday but pulled out at the last minute, leaving Jason and his partner Michelle, Luke (Mr Fish Whisperer), myself and Craig Co. (Craig and Alf) to fend for ourselves. Craig, Alf and Luke camped overnight at Creel Bay while Jase, Michelle and I made our way down for a gentlemen’s hour session on the Friday.

The campers had no luck through the night and struggled to land anything the following day using kayak and boat trolling methods. The report was hardly exciting although Craig had dropped a fish early. Luke hadn’t had a touch and the word from the shore anglers I passed on route to our bank was hardly surprising (“Nope, not a touch” or “Only the one, slow going”).

In a fit of uncharacteristic dedication I left the kayak at home, was all set to give the Stealth Serpent its opening blatt but my hangover got the better of me. Instead I packed the Powerbait, rod holders, seat and some munchies and rigged up where I set up (Another uncharacteristic approach). After about 30 minutes I had netted my first Bow, nothing enormous by anyone’s standards but a healthy mid 40’s. Jason and Michelle arrived and set up Yabby traps along the opposite bank to collect some tasty freshwater crustaceans.

They joined me on the bank about 20 minutes after my second Bow (Identical to the first) and rigged up some Powerbait and settled in for a chat. Michelle’s rod went off before they had even cast the second baited rod in the water, she played it like a pro and another almost identical fish graced our presence. This was Michelle’s first Trout, a superbly conditioned Rainbow that was destined to have a mate. Like my second fish, it took a few hours before her other reel started screaming.

Once again she held her own (With some basic coaching from Jason) and netted another beauty. Here is where statistics come into play, two fish on Powerbait Lime Twist (1 @ 9am, 1 @ 11am) and two fish on Berkley Gulp ‘Chunky Cheese’ (1 @ 12:15pm, 1 @ 3pm). Seems the later the day wore on the more the cheese pleased, just half an hour after the last fish Jason was on to an unstoppable one.

Taking line and line I even watched him slightly muffle the spool to try and create additional drag, there was a pause in its run before it continued and it didn’t come to the surface. This bank is steep and Browns don’t seem that eager to rise from deeper water but the problem was it had buried Jason around some sort of structure (Rock, Tree, what have you). After a couple of minutes it was all over but the strangest thing was all tackle remained intact upon retrieval, including sinkers, leader and the tiny Mosquito hook.

This was hard to believe as the way the drags set, the presentation in the water and the previous hook sets all permitted a safe gut hooking. Many things may have happened, the fish could have brushed the line when it took it in its mouth and spooked early, or perhaps the hook was somehow embedded in the side of the mouth (Or roof even) rather than the floor.

Perhaps it was my fault, after all I had only just found a discarded Banana skin on the bank and tarnished Jason with its effects, muttering the words ‘I Tarnish you with the curse of the Banana skin’. Top mate I am and kind of feel guilty, all is fair in love and war (Dried animal droppings, dead birds, sand) but the dreaded Banana hurl was probably over the top (Sorry mate, couldn’t help myself). I had an appointment with the relatives for Easter Friday dinner so left soon after, from what I can gather the two lovebirds weren’t too far behind.

It was a great day on the water, a little slow, a little hot, a little windy and then far too glassed off. My quest for a full bag was denied by the time of year rather than my approach, still it was enough to satisfy my freshwater urges and convince me to drink less and kayak fish more (Live by the sword, die by the sword).

ABT HOBIE KAYAK SERIES - MARLO REPORT

Kayak Fishing in Victoria has a rather strong following, with equally strong willed tournament attendance at both ABT Hobie Kayak series rounds (First Bemm River and now Marlo). The Victorian state titles were held in picturesque Marlo, home of the exiting Snowy River. Multiple lakes, rivers, creeks, mouths and slow tidal flow, Marlo was found to be a typical kayak angler’s wet dream.

Mixed weather hampered solid pre fishing but not everyone was sharing their well rounded results so freely (Business end of the season and all), with five qualifying places on offer for the ABT Forster grand final, plus amped up financial incentives (State results, two day event) the available stakes were higher than ever. The word from the water was five pound ‘Blacks’ were not uncommon, with skills honed it turned into a well matched affair but whose Bream would reign supreme?

Light conditions were unfavourable for the scheduled 6:00am start, due to the ever closing daylight savings period meant the start and finish times were delayed by almost an hour. With no ABT adjourning boating round (Due to Mallacoota shuffle) there was no pressure on adjudication at or during weigh in. The two obvious choices for competitors were up or down stream. One direction held the lakes, flats and rivers whilst the other held deeper water, schooling fish and the iconic mouth. Many of those who did manage a Friday pre fish struggled, not with the conditions but the system itself.

Those that learnt from the lesson, became ‘In the know’ and firmly put any Friday woes behind them. Some absolutely smashed previous ABT kayak records clean out of the water which not only included biggest Boss Hog but biggest day one and state final bag overall. The end of day one saw coy Dave Hedge submit a generous bag of 4.36kg, full of three swine’s (With the sow of sty weighing around 1.6kg). Believe it or not this wasn’t the biggest Bream submitted on day one, Jeff McDonald caught, presented and released a 1.72kg specimen (Could only imagine how well it fought on light gear).

Want to read more? (Click on this link here)